Show Stopper

How cute is she??

Clara's spring dance recital was last night. The theme was Motown and her class tap danced to "Respect" and their ballet number was to "Ben" (Michael Jackson). This was Clara's first time up on a stage. She's third from the left in this picture.

Her tulle ribbon came untied during her tap dance and she didn't know what to do. She got a worried look on her face and ran offstage toward her dance teacher who was off to the side doing the dance for them to watch. Miss Ryan had to stop and retie her shoe and as Clara went to get back in her spot, she fell flat on her face and Miss Ryan had to come help her up. The whole audience cried "Oohhh" and then she started crying as she stood up, so everyone started clapping and yelling for her.

I was worried it might make it worse, but she walked to her spot, dried her eyes and got right back in there. Talk about making a mama proud. I wouldn't have blamed her a bit if she'd ran off the stage crying. I know I would have. Instead, she finished the song enthusiastically, bowed and blew kisses at the end and then got back out there for her second dance number. I was impressed with all of the girls. Through all of that distraction and Miss Ryan having to stop and help Clara, they never missed a beat. Well, except for all the beats they missed simply because they are 2 and 3.

I told you I was proud of my little ballerina. Look, I'm beaming. Seriously, every time I thought about it last night, I couldn't help thinking how blessed I am to have such a sweet girl with such an awesome personality. That spirit of perseverance will serve her well as she grows, I just know it. Did I mention how proud I am of her?

Yes, we did get the whole thing on video, so I'll try to put it up here so you can have a little laugh and then beam with pride right along with me when you see what a brave girl she was.

Here's the proud grandpa and grandma. These were the only pictures I took the entire time they were here. But to be fair, this was one of the few times we actually left the house. I was a worthless lump on the couch for the most part.

After the show, we noticed hives on Clara's face. She had them before church on her knee but after some hydrocortisone, the hives went away and I didn't think much of it. When they started on her face, they just kept getting worse, so it looks like a reaction to her antibiotic. Lovely. I called the pharmacy last night and they said to stop the antibiotic and give her benadryl, which took care of them right away. I have a call in to her doctor, but no one has called me back yet.

Soooo, the doctor's office just called me back and just like that she's allergic to penicillin. Grrrrr. They've called in a different antibiotic for her. Drug allergies are something totally new for us, so I'm not thrilled about that one and actually have no idea what the implications are. I guess I'm off to google.

So Much to Say.....

so very little interest in actually typing the words. In case you're wondering, yes, I feel absolutely terrible and have for several weeks now. Though I've only dry heaved three times, I've felt as though I was going to heave almost every waking moment.

I figured I should at least get on here and post about the excitement we had on Thursday night. Clara had said earlier in the day that her ear hurt. We thought maybe she got water in it the day before playing in Samantha's swimming pool, so we put a little alcohol in it and gave her some tylenol. At some point during the day she complained about a stomach ache for a short time. We chalked it up to being hungry.

Chris' parents had come into town Tuesday afternoon and that night we ate at Pappasito's. My tummy was NOT happy with my choice of restaurant. It gurgled and cramped and hurt all evening, so I hit the sack at the same time as Clara. About an hour after she went to bed, she woke screaming hysterically.

Chris went and got her and she was completely inconsolable. She just wouldn't calm down. He brought her into the room and we decided she was probably having a night terror. The problem was, she seemed to be in excruciating pain. She was screaming "Ow, ow, ow, it hurts!" over and over. She would buckle over in pain and grab her stomach, then she'd grab her forehead. When we asked her what hurt, she wasn't real responsive (again, I think she was still in the night terror).

I thought maybe she was just hurting in her dream, but it was so hard to tell and we couldn't get her to wake up. I thought night terrors were bad, but night terrors with pain takes the cake. We decided to go ahead and take her to the ER. She woke up more on the drive there and then started screaming that she didn't want to go to the doctor. She was also grabbing her ear screaming, so we decided it was probably the ear causing her problems (it was the other ear that was hurting earlier that day).

We got to the ER at 10:30 and she screamed and cried for about 15-20 more minutes before falling asleep. I know we were a hit in the waiting room. We finally got into an exam room around 1:30 where we sat for another half hour before the doctor came in. He looked in her ear and said "Oh, it looks like we got a bug in there." and then said we'd need to irrigate it.

We had to sign a bunch of paperwork because we were being admitted to a room in the ER (not looking forward to that bill) and then proceeded to wait another 45 minutes or so. There was a bed in the room, so Clara and I got to lay down. (Remember the Pappasito's? Yeah, I was feeling it all night.)

The doctor finally finds his way to the room and brings with him two large male nurses. Ooooh, this is not a good sign. They put a gown on her, put her arms at her sides and proceed to wrap her up tightly in a folded up sheet. The nurses were at either side and Chris held her legs. They needed all three to hold the poor girl down.

Nothing came out the first couple of squirts, but then a huge chunk floated to the top. And then another. They were huge. We kinda picked at them after he left and I think it was all wax; I didn't see a bug, but who knows. He went ahead and prescribed her an antibiotic, though it seems he was just prescribing it as a precaution because he said it looked alright once he got a look at it. And I told him the other ear hurt earlier that day, but he said it looked fine.

She did have green goop that started coming out of her eyes that night that was getting worse as the night progressed and she's been coughing at night like she did several months ago when it turned out she had a sinus infection, so I didn't fight it. I asked what the eye gunk was and he had noted that she was congested and had green mucus, but all he said is the antibiotic would knock it out. I really prefer to know what my child has instead of just prescribing meds for an ear infection even though you say they don't look infected and then say that it'll take care of the other stuff. I'd like to know what the other stuff is. Maybe that's just me. I left it alone because it was 3:30 and I certainly wouldn't want to pay for a swab to be done at the ER.

So, our plans to go to Galveston for the day on Friday didn't quite happen. Clara has been blowing the nastiest green mucus and coughing a lot. It sounds like it's all breaking up and now she just has to get it all out, but she sounds pretty awful. Ok, gotta go get ready for Clara's dance recital. I can't wait to see the pretty ballerina on stage, hacking her lungs out.